How is James Webb Space Telescope so important for the future of our Earth?
James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful telescope launched by NASA a couple of months ago. Using it you can watch the past.
Though you can't really travel to the past but can see a glimpse of the past.
credit - NASA Solar System Exploration
I have made a detailed article on Travel in Past and Future. You can check it out
Coming to the topic again, you can't see only some 10 to 50 years back, but millions and billions of years back. For instance, it is calculated to be 13 billion years back in the past!
The Big Bang was done about 13.7 billion years ago. And this telescope can see 13 billion years back. You can understand its importance I guess.
credit - Forbes
Let's discuss about it in detail.
Features of JWSP
The prominent feature of this telescope is that it is designed to detect infrared lights.
credit - Wikipedia
You might have studied in your school about Visible Light Spectrum. According to it there are various forms of lights, and among them only a narrow area called the Visible Light is visible to us.
Not only our eyes but all the telescopes are also designed for visible lights. It can't see behind the space dust and hence doesn't gives detailed and high-quality images.
credit - Toppr
But with the help of infrared feature in James Webb, we will be able to get detailed, high-quality HD images.
Another advantage of using infrared rays is that it can detect stars which are situated billion and trillions of kilometers away. The light coming from these stars increases their wave length from distance to distance. This phenomenon is called Red-Shift.
credit - schoolphysics
Gold Mirror
James Webb Space Telescope has a very large mirror as compared to Hubble Space Telescope. This is because the larger the mirror, more light it can capture and the higher resolution it can provide.
credit - Quora
Another thing is that whole mirror of James Webb is made up of 24karat Gold because Gold is the best reflector of Red light. As a result, the reflectiveness of this telescope is 98%.
Problems of JWSP
Everything radiated by heat energy, gives out infrared lights. As a result James Webb Telescope will also radiates some amount heat energy, which will interfere with the heat energy radiated by galaxies. As a result, we won't be able to receive high-quality pictures.
credit - Wikipedia
To avoid this problem, this telescope can only work in -223°C. This much cold temperature is required to make it function properly.
Now it is possible in space unless sunlight falls on it as sunlight can make it too hot within no time.
Now to overcome this problem, a sun shield has been installed in this telescope. The Sun Shield is in a shape of a kite and is as large as a tennis court.
credit - Physics World
A special material name Kapton is used to prevent and reflect back the sun rays and hence keeping it cool. About 5 layers of Kapton has been used in this telescope.
Deployment of JWST
Unlike Hubble Space Telescope which is deployed quite near to Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will be deployed 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth.
credit - James Webb Space Telescope - NASA
It will be located behind the orbit of the Earth at point L2 to prevent is from sun rays. This project is made with a revenue of $10 billion! Apart from NASA, European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency are also participating in this project.
credit - Webb Telescope
Even one the biggest problem is that NASA has mentioned that there are about 400 practical problem which could occur during its launch. And if a single one occurred to whole project will be waste.
Time Travel by JWST
Through this telescope we can see about 13 billion years back. This will help us to know about the formation of stars and galaxies.
But a question might arise in your mind that how is time travel possible from this telescope?
The concept is to reach the region before light reaches it and then see the glimpse of history through that light.
credit - SciTech Daily
Let me explain this with an example - Suppose, you went to a planet 100 million light years away from Earth and then you put a very strong telescope on it which can see what's happening on Earth.
So the light rays coming from Earth will give us a glimpse about the history of our Earth.
So through the same way James Webb Telescope will be used to identify the formation of differnt stars and galaxies.
Now the main thing to see is whether James Webb Telescope is able to find any new planet similar to Earth for future settlement.
credit - NASA
The answer of this question will be given in second part of this article.
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Thanks for Reading!
